Robert Siegel, who has been the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” since 1987, will step down in January 2018, the public radio broadcaster announced this morning.

Siegel, born in 1947, first joined NPR in 1976. “He joined NPR as a newscaster, moved into an editor role, opened NPR’s London bureau, and as chief of NPR News ran the newsroom,” NPR Extra’s Christopher Turpin, Michael Oreskes, and Carline Watson wrote in an article announcing Siegel’s coming departure.

“This is a decision long in the making and not an easy one. I’ve had the greatest job I can think of, working with the finest colleagues anyone could ask for, for as long a stretch as I could imagine,” Robert commented in the article. “But, looking ahead to my seventies (which start all too soon) I feel that it is time for me to begin a new phase of life. Over the next few months, I hope to figure out what that will be.”